Manufacture of cutlery



(No Model.)

A. JOHNSTON.

MANUFACTURE OF GUTLERY. No. 408,807. Patented Aug, 6, 1889.

Nv PETERS, Pnawmm m hur. Washington, D. c.

UNITED sTaTns PATENT OFFICE.

ALLEN JOHNSTON, OF OTTUMWVA, IOIVA.

MAN U FACTU RE OF CUTLERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,307, dated August6, 1889. Application filed January 2, 1889. Serial No. 295,220. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALLEN JOHNSTON, a ciiizen of the United States,residing at Ottumwa, in the county of \Vapello and State of Iowa, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of ManufacturingCutlery, of which the following is a specification.

The customary method of manufacturing the blades of table-knives andkindred cutlery, to which my invent-ion relates, has been as follows: Asection of metal somewhat shorter than the finished blade, but of athickness suiiicient for the thickest part thereof, is heated and thenrolled, so as to taper from the longitudinal center or thickest part toa thin edge at the end approximating the degree .of sharpness requiredat that point when finished. Sometimes, also, the metal is tapered fromthe center to each of its ends by separate rolling operations. Therolling has two objects in viewfirst, to save metal by elongating theblank, and, second, to lessen the labor involved in the subsequentgrinding or shaping of the blade. It however has certain attendantdisadvantages. First, the rolling is apt to leave the blank in a twistedor bent condition, one portion of the blade perhaps projecting too farto one side, so as to necessitate not only great care in the subsequentgrinding, but also an unnecessary amount thereof at the bent portions;second, the rolling may reduce the blank too much in thickness, leavingit so thin that it will be worthless after the removal of the scaleformed in the forging operation, and, third, lumps of scale or otherforeign matter are liable to adhere to some portion of the rolled blankand form hollows therein,which cannot be removed without grinding awaytoo much of the metal. Many of the blanks are spoiled in some of theseways. After the rolling the blade-blank is stamped or cut outof therolled metal, and after being reheated and straightened is subj ected toa grinding operation to finish shaping it to the fashion of thecompleted blade.

I have found that much more perfect work may be produced at agreatly-reduced cost in the following manner: I first stamp from sheetor ribbon metal possessing the greatest thickness requisite in thefinished blade blanks of the full length required in. the com pletedblade. Instead of rolling these blanks to bring them to the approximateshape required for the finished article I shape them wholly by grinding.The blank is then ready for the subsequent finishing or polishingoperation.

In the drawings I have shown at Figure l a plan of the blank produced bytheiirst step of my new process, and at. Figs. 2 and 3 thereof sectionsupon the lines 2 2 and S 3, respectively, of Fig. 1. Fig. 4shows theblank after it has been ground, and Figs. 5 and 6 are sections upon thelines 5 5 and 6 6, re spectively, of said Fig. 4C.

In said drawings, A represents the blank as it appears when firststamped from sheet metal. It may be cut from sheet or ribbon metalpossessing the greatest thickness requisite in the completed blade. Itis of the full length required. After being stamped out the blank isnext ground to the form shown at Figs. 4, 5, and 6 without being rolledor heated for any purpose whatever] This grind-- in g of the blankbrings it into the proper condition for the subsequent finishingoperation of polishing. By this method of manufacture I avoid not onlythe labor and other expense involved in the heating, rolling, reheating,and straightening operations of the old process, but I also avoid theproduction of the worthless and imperfect blanks that so often resultfrom the old mode of operation.

I claim The improvement in the process of manu facturing the blades oftable-cutlery, &c., con sisting in the following steps: first, stamp-.ing from sheet or ribbon metal a blank having the length and greatestthickness requt site in the finished blade, and then wholly shaping saidblank by grinding, substantially as specified.

ALLEN JOHNSTON. Witnesses:

J. CHAMBERS, Jr., W. C. MAJOR.

